Vermillion Parish Gets FEMA Grant For Emergency Personnel

Emergency personnel in Vermillion Parish will soon have new communications equipment thanks to a federal grant. The 73-point-5 thousand dollar grant from FEMA was approved by the Vermillion Parish Police Jury.

Rebecca Broussard is the director of the parish's department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, and she says the grant is required to be spent in certain ways. She says 34 percent must go to police, with 25 percent of that spent on planning, training, and exercises.

Broussard says, though, the amount of the annual grant has been greatly reduced--down 57 percent from last year.

Broussard says the grant will allow them to purchase some 200 700-megahertz radios for emergency personnel as required by federal law. Nathan Pike, Newstalk 96.5 KPEL.